São Paulo – Company Descarte Correto is a finalist in the Young Innovator competition, promoted by the International Telecommunications Union, to have its final in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from October 14 to 18. The company is competing for prizes of 5,000 and 10,000 Swiss francs.
Descarte Correto is a social company that operates in management of technology residues, focussing on information technology material. In the project presented for the competition, the company created a system for incentives for the population to take electronic waste to Descarte in exchange for services of their interest.
“This benefit club may help motivate people to dispose of material in a more sustainable manner,” explained Alessandro Dinelli, the company founder. According to him, the compensation system is still in planning phase, but the intention is to offer benefits to several social classes of the population, from those who need access to the internet to those who may be interested in information technology courses.
On receiving the electronic material, Descarte Correto evaluates whether the computers can be fixed or whether the item must be disassembled and have its parts sent to recyclers.
To get to the final of the competition, Descarte Correto competed with around 400 projects from 77 countries. Now, it is the only Brazilian company among the 12 finalists. The other projects are from Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, the United States, Slovakia, Indonesia, Kenya (with two finalists), India, Pakistan and South Africa.
Apart from sustainable disposal of technological material, the company’s social work also includes the establishment of centres for social inclusion in poor communities and for the professional training of youths from the age of 16 on. “We selected youths for training courses, making them into maintenance technical assistants,” said Dinelli. Apart from the courses at the centres, Descarte also offers specific training at its offices for the most prepared youths.
Currently with five employees, the company collects half of its work material at ten collection points at the digital inclusion centres and also at companies. According to Dinelli, the Descarte objective is to close agreements with producers of technology to become responsible for their residue management.
In Dubai, Descarte should be represented by Lucas Simão, aged 24, as the competition was turned to people aged 18 to 25. Simão operates in the company’s Institutional Development area.
Over the four days he will be in the Emirates, Simão should participate in guidance session with top echelon executives of companies, training sessions for entrepreneurial abilities, as well as talks with those participating in the competition. The Descarte project will be presented at a panel and all the finalists also earn the monitoring of their project for a year.
Dinelli is very enthusiastic with the repercussion that the competition has been having for the company. “Ever since the result showing that we are in the final came out, this has been generating national repercussion. We have already had many interviews this week. I hope that this may open space for partnerships with large companies,” he said.
*Translated by Mark Ament
